All Observations

Forecast Center Observation

Date

2020-05-22

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

David Hickle

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Garrett Hallett and I had a fun day in the McCallum Creek area catching the last of the spring corn. The snow was slush up to ~ 4300' at 9 AM, then hardened above 4300' on north-facing slopes. South-facing slopes haven't refrozen in a few days and were thawing to a depth of 2-3', north-facing…

Date

2020-03-15

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Ryan Tansey

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned about 4 miles up Fossil Creek south of Rainbow Ridge on 3/15. Temperature around 15 degrees, little to no wind. We observed evidence of heavy wind loading on southeast facing slopes at most elevations; as a result, many large cornices have formed on those aspects (one example included in the below photo). However,…

Date

2020-02-26

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Inaugural Maclaren Lodge Avy 1

Avalanche

N

General Observations

During our first ride day of our snowmachine based avalanche 1 class at Maclaren Lodge we rode to the Cotton Drainage near the Maclaren Glacier. About 2 inches of fresh snow had fallen overnight at the lodge. We observed several natural avalanches on wind loaded terrain steeper than 35 degrees. These avalanches were D1 in size and consisted of the…

Date

2020-02-22

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Nick Janssen

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied up red rock canyon road to rainbow basin. Climbed the pass to the ridge and to the summit of McCallum peak. Seemingly good, stable powder at all elevations on the north side of the pass. No whumfing in our 16 miles of traveling and no signs of recent slides. Possible shooting crack observed at around…

Date

2020-02-10

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Taylor Bracher

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Cantwell received 12-18" of new snow over the weekend, followed by strong and steady winds Sunday night and Monday. We saw flagging on peaks all around the area on Monday and heard lots of whoomphing under our feet even in the flats.

Date

2020-02-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Phillip Wilson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied from the highway about 8 miles up the Black Rapids Glacier. Crossing the Delta river was easy by avoiding the obvious holes, there was lots of sneaky overflow further up Black Rapids creek. Temps were above 0, very strong wind out of the south was quickly eroding the soft snow along the valley floor and leaving…

General Observations

This is a somewhat unorthodox post, but I felt like everyone should be aware of this. Wife and I were out skiing towards the Castner Glacier today and saw two grizzly bears on the moraine above the first ice cave. Didn't notice them until we were about 50-100 yards away, so we got a very good look (although…

Date

2019-12-18

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

James Pyke

Avalanche

N

General Observations

We climbed and skied from above the Devil's Thumb on 12/18/19. We dug a pit at around 3500' on a SW aspect on the ascent. The snowpack was 115cm deep and had two finger progressing to one finger density to the ground. A column test resulted in no failures (CTN). I pried the column off the…

General Observations

Our group of two skinned/booted most of the way up Canwell Peak today and skied the north face. At lower elevations, there is a significant melt/freeze crust on the surface, up higher (~ 3200', N aspect), this transitioned to a melt/freeze crust with significant wind effects. We dug a pit around 4000' on the north…

Date

2019-11-25

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Charlie Bohart

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Left the Rich at mile post 213.5 traveling along a trap line trail/gravel road with skis and skins to the base of a north facing slope strike 290 dip 35. I dug a simple column test pit, melt crust layers at 1 foot and at 2.5 feet, total depth about 4 feet with a foot…

Date

2019-12-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Does this work?

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Yo yo yo

Date

2019-11-09

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

MCS

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Party of two skied "Dood" Ridge via the pipeline. Skied ~30-degree slope just north of the pipeline. The snow was slow but great weather!Weather: Blue bird day, low teens, gentle breeze from S/SETwo test pits were dug at 3,300 ft approximately 750 ft apart. A "creme brulee" crust was noted at the bottom of the…

Date

2019-11-03

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

James Smith

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied up to the top of "Dood" Ridge (just north of Dude Lake on the west side of Phelan Creek). Down at creek level there was evidence of the warming from the previous week including a 2-3cm melt-freeze crust, percolation channels and runnels. As we climbed, the crust gradually disappeared and we found good semi-soft powder of variable…

General Observations

Bad visibility. A group of 7 hiked in from the McCallum Creek road and dug a pit at 4700ft on a 40 degree south facing slope. The test showed a snow depth of 85.5 cm, there was about 15cm of new wet powder on top and 30cms down there was a weak layer of wind crust. Our tap test broke on 11 at the first…

Date

2019-10-27

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sean Marble

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned up around Rainbow ridge a bit. A big wind event was forecasted for the area, and it was definitely howling on the north side of the mountains, but rainbow ridge was surprisingly calm. Skiing up the creek gully to the west of the ridge, we did notice the top 3-4 inches had a tendency to slide…

Date

2019-10-20

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Mark Oldmixon

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Took a snow machine in Red Rock Canyon Road and up the Canwell Glacier moraine/mine road. No evidence of new snow of winds since the last group a week before. Their tracks were still quite crisp. We stopped a mile in on the mine road and skinned from there. We saw no red flags, despite…

Date

2019-10-13

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Chris Hall

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned up the road that parallels McCallum Creek and headed up to the peak North of the road ( I don't know the name) through a large drainage. Observed variable conditions and snow depths while skinning, a little punchy and thin at times. Wind has affected the snow and there was a loose layer on top varying from…

Date

2019-10-13

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Phillip Wilson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied up to the new weather station, and confirmed the snow reading was correct, over 64 inches of snow has already accumulated at 5000ft! The snow had been heavily affected by wind out of the north, but southern wind protected faces had pockets of deep soft snow. We saw several small avalanches on the steepest of these southern faces,…

Date

2019-10-06

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Mark Oldmixon

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Couldn't resist checking out the conditions this weekend after the weather station was reporting good snow levels. We drove through Red Rock Canyon and started skinning up from there. There was enough snow on the road that we regretted not bringing sleds. Rather than take the road all the way to Look Eryie, we followed…

Date

2019-10-05

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sam K

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied into Rainbow Basin via Red Rock Canyon Road. Approximately 6" of fresh snow covered terrain at lower elevations. Remnants of natural sluff avalanches were observed on some eastern aspects. Open crevasses and bergschrunds were observed on all glaciated surfaces. Partly elected to ski a moderate face on a SE aspect along the main easterly…

Date

2019-09-28

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Taylor B

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Ski toured up the Gulkana Glacier where we managed to ski nice snow off of a 6,???ft peak due east of Cony Peak and turned back just below the east facing summit dome of Cony Peak due to reactive wind slab. No snow until about 4,500ft on the glacier with the snow depth quickly increasing to 50cm…

Date

2019-09-28

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

F Covi

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Hiked up the Castner-Fels Divide on Saturday morning. Snow line in the are is at about 3500 ft (just above tree line). Above 4500 ft snow depth is about 20 cm and snow cover is pretty homogeneous. Wind already started affecting the snow pack in isolated pocket. A wind advisory was emitted for the night between…

Date

2019-04-28

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Shelby

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Let the spring skiing commence! May 4th at Skiland was warm but surprisingly not sloppy. Pretty good coverage on the upper mountain, but definitely starting to thin out quite a bit. The snow was decent on the center run (with the terrain park on it) but quickly got dust on crusty the further away from center line you…

Date

2019-05-04

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Shelby

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Date

2019-05-05

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Lea H

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Booted part way up one of the chutes on Rainbow Ridge from the road. Turned around after approx. 900m vert because of rock fall, avalanche debris in intended line and overall uninspiring snow conditions. Snow situation here (West facing, ~2700-5700ft elevation) can be summarized as refrozen melt-freeze crust on wet/damp facets. Crust became mostly supportive to boot packing above ~4000ft but…

Date

2019-04-28

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Lea H

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned up Gulkana West/W Phelan Creek from Arctic Man parking lot. Experienced frequent settling from ~4100ft onwards, all the way up the valley and onto the lower section of the glacier. Pit at ~4300ft on SW aspect, ~20°,showed starting from top: small amount of rounded grains (guessing recently wind deposited), melt crust, rounded grains, facets…

Date

2019-04-27

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Ryan T

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Flew into the Susitna glacier on 4/26 and spent the weekend skiing some lines on the surrounding mountains. In short, the pack on northern and northeastern aspects was extremely stable. We saw no slides and our pit showed a cohesive slab with low density snow on top of higher density (pic below); we also did not find buried depth hoar (at least to the…

Date

2019-04-28

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Keane Richards

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Silvertip attempt with Alpine Club. Crystal clear, breezy the whole time. Fresh powder (maybe 6 inches) up Michael Creek to the camp at the headwall. No avalanche activity visible other than some wet slides on the sides of Michael Creek and cornice blocks falling from ridges. Dug two pits on SW and NE aspects, but…

Date

2019-04-20

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

David Hickle

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Hi all - skiied 10-15 miles south of Cantwell today, there has been quite a bit of temps above freezing which resulted in a layer of ice ~ 6" under the latest snow throughout. This crust would support 220 lbs standing in ski boots and we couldn't penetrate it with a ski pole. Observed three…

Date

2019-04-14

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sam Kendall

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Party skinned to the end of the Fels Glacier for an overnight. Observed old wet slabs on the northern aspects of the lower Miller Creek canyon. Multiple wet point releases observed on both southerly and northerly aspects of faces traveling on the glacier. Observed multiple small serac falls on northerly aspects in the late afternoon.

Date

2019-04-14

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Keane Richards

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Snow pit / general condition report from Castner Glacier up to 4.5 miles in (Rum Doodle approach). 04-13: Skijored in to Rum Doodle approach, nice fluffy new snow (about 5 inches), very warm and sunny after evening prior of wind near Black Rapids. Some small avalanches on N aspects of steeper slopes, seemed to reach only…

Date

2019-04-13

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Brons Gerrish

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Observation from the N-NW side of Canwell Peak, same trip as Tristan Sayre. On pit examination there is a cohesive, dense right side up layer between 2-4 ft deep resting on depth hoar melt refreeze crust combo. In our pit we failed both compression and propagation tests at 22 and 21. The propagation was clean and the surface was…

Date

2019-04-13

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Tristan Sayre

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Deltas provided for a great day of skiing! Went up north side of Mt. Canwell which had 2"-10" fresh snow from the previous night's storm on top of a crust. Dug a pit at around 4500' on a NW aspect with an ECPX and CT20 result. Found a large cohesive layer about 3-4 feet deep on top of depth hoar. Failure…

Date

2019-04-07

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sean Marble

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Went split boarding on the north side of Rainbow Ridge. We started a little before noon, and everything was still kind of icy and crusty. Made it to the ridge around 4, and by that time the sun had softened the snow and made for an awesome descent. We dug one pit on the way…

Date

2019-03-30

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Ryan Tansey

Avalanche

N

General Observations

A friend and I spent three days ski touring on Kalhabuk Mountain in the Brooks Range (Wiseman, AK). Since there’s no Brooks Range observation page and I’ve received a number of questions about the conditions from EARAC folks, I figured I’d post our report here. The skiing was phenomenal: great spring corn on eastern aspects and 6-12 inches of re-crystallized powder on northern aspects. …

Date

2019-03-30

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Kourtney Gundersen

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Freezing temperatures at night seem to make stable snow snow conditions in the morning. Warm temperature and sun exposure create a soft top layer loosening bonds between snow layers in the afternoon creating unstable conditions. I have a photo, but it will not attach.

Date

2019-03-31

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Thomas Lees

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Witnessed a rider climb I steep south facing hill around 3pm Sunday. Triggered a decently large avy in a terrain trap. Watched the ride come down around the avy and ride up to see if his riding partner was caught. Thank goodness he wasn’t. Rider that set the avy off did not have a beacon prob or…

Date

2019-04-25

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Theodore S Alder

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied up miller creek just past the first ice cave on the Eel Glacier. 3 newer natural avalanche debris areas. Dug column on 20 degree north aspect. approximately 20" snow with bottom 8" large crystal facet. CT24 with failure at the very bottom.

Date

2019-04-25

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Theodore S Alder

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Date

2019-03-23

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sean Marble

Avalanche

N

General Observations

We skied a bit up Trims Cr and bushwhacked to the ridge. We camped and skied out Michael Cr on Sunday. As soon as the sun hit the snow on Saturday morning it turned into an isothermal mess and started creating wet slabs with shooting cracks. If the weather stays warm like this, wet slabs will definitely be…

Date

2019-03-24

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Duncan Fisher

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skiied in about 2.5 miles from the road to the Castner Glacier. Dug a pit on an east aspect, 21 degree slope. Top 15cm was a melt/freeze layer, with a pretty solid sun crust. Next 15cm down was a 1-finger hardness slab, then an ice crust, with another 25cm of 1-finger density slab below that. The…

Date

2019-03-24

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Duncan Fisher

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Date

2019-03-23

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Taylor Bracher

Avalanche

N

General Observations

We found a large natural avalanche that looked to be caused by cornice fall (we didn't witness it occur). West aspect, starting at a ridge just below 5,000'. Located south of the Denali Highway about 15 miles east of Cantwell.The ski approach from the DH was varied- by 9am the snow below brushline was unsupportable, but above…

Date

2019-03-21

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

James Smith

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Checked out conditions near the College Glacier today. It was warm! Didn't check the thermometer, but certainly above freezing. Noted some newer point releases on steep solar aspects.Up at 5500ft on the glacier, snow was deep, 245cm. However, the whole area seems to have a variable 3-5cm thick, melt freeze crust with seemingly bottomless facets…

Date

2019-03-17

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Ryan Tansey

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Hopper and I ski toured approximately 3 miles up Michael Creek drainage. Objective was to boot up and ski a chute named Wolf run (coordinates 63.448295, -145.714570), N aspect, 40 deg. Snow pack was maritime-like and solid during the tour to the base of the chute, with a 5in layer of softer wet snow covering a…

Date

2019-03-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Steph Wight

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Castner glacier: We skied out along castner glacier. Trail is well traveled to the first ice cave but deep snow- definitely helpful to have skis or snow shoes. We camped between the first and the second ice cave. Snow was knee to waist deep and soft so it was helpful to wear skis when around camp.…

Date

2019-03-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Julia Gestrich

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Very sunny and warm weekend on Castner Glacier, almost no wind. We went 3 miles in, close to a second ice cave and ice ledge to practice prusiking. Upper snow layer in some areas up to knee deep and very dry. Almost impossible to compress to build tent base. On hills often windblown with very…

Date

2019-03-03

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Sean Marble

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skied up Ann Cr and up onto the ridge on the S side of the drainage. Dug a simple pit on the N aspect (19 deg) before the left turn and steep section in the canyon. Snow was highly localized, with wind crusts and melt freeze crusts. Right below the ridgetop 3/4 of a mile further,…

Date

2019-03-03

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Phillip Wilson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Reached the summit of White Princess with clear skies and warm weather! The snow was far to crusty to ski from the summit, but with a few more weeks of warm weather a ski descent of the south face from the summit should be possible. We skied the south west face, below ~8000ft there was several inches of loose powder on a…

Date

2019-03-03

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Ryan T

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned in and camped at the toe of the Castner glacier. Snow conditions and depths varied depending on aspect/location. Generally, there was about 4 inches of powder covering a harder layer of wind blown slab. The slab was easily breakable making travel without skis/snowshoes challenging. The base was mostly faceted snow. Temps ranged from 22F in the sun to -5F at night. We…

Date

2019-03-03

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Mary Webb

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Beautiful blue bird weather all weekend! Super sunny and warm, no wind. It was pretty wind slabby in most areas and there was a lot of hoarfrost underneath the wind crust layers. We saw a little natural avalanche on a slope that was ~35-40 degrees and South facing. We just stuck to the mellow areas and didn't try…

Date

2019-02-23

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Danielle Bessent

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Beautiful day at the Canwell Glacier. Skied to the toe of the glacier via miller creek - about 2 miles in and observed variable snow depths depending on aspect. There was 5-10cm snow above a thin melt-freeze crust and mostly facets to the ground below that. We heard some whoomph noises in the flats. We did not do a…

Date

2019-02-24

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Jonathan Hutchinson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Route: Skinned up Michaels Creek to top of the headwall. Bootpacked on SW aspect to 6800'. Skid down NW aspect. Observations: Plenty of old avalanches in Michael's Creek, non appeared to be recent as the debris was covered in drifted snow with no recent wind. Snow up headwall was 4" to 6" powder over a hard base, …

Date

2019-02-24

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Lea Hartl

Avalanche

N

General Observations

2/24/19: Skinned up Trims Creek (inspired by last week’s group!), followed ridge west of Item Peak headwall to about 6500ft, skied mostly W/SW aspects from ridge back down to Trims drainage. Very sunny day, some wind in the creek but calm further in. Very variable snow conditions overall. Snow surface has been shaped by wind…

Date

2019-02-16

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Jesse

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Trims creek valley cornices overhanging to the north. Snow wind blown crust in the upper section of the valley outside the canyon.

General Observations

General Observations

Skied up Trims Creek, generally easy going with deep soft snow in the creek. There were two spots where the creek had open water that forced us to bushwhack around on steep alder covered slopes. Hopefully these will get filled in later in the winter and it will much easier.

Date

2019-02-10

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Jonathan Koenig

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Skinned up Ann Creek on the west side of the Delta River. There was 6-8” of soft powder in sheltered areas of the creek valley. We observed widespread surface hoar from 2500 to 4000 feet. We continued up the creek and climbed on to the east face of Lion’s Head. Above 3500 feet the snow conditions…

Date

2019-02-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

David Hickle

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Full day of snowmachining and skiing at Summit - started at the Arctic Man parking lot, wound our way back to the Tit. ~ 8" of fresh powder on top of a slab (I think temps got above freezing ~ 1-2 weeks ago), some dry sluff on a 34 deg slope, no whumps or red…

Date

2019-01-27

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Phillip Wilson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Snow surface consisted of 2in of soft, wind transported snow, which made for really good skiing. I broke through a thin snow bridge into a shallow bergschrund up near the ridge but was easily able to climb out.

Date

2019-01-26

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Phillip Wilson

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Two of us snowmachined up to just below first-aid, and ski toured up the ridge line on Saturday the 26th, the weather was sunny, around 15F and there was little to no wind. The snow was covered in a hard crust, and heavily wind scoured on southern aspects, in some spots exposing the ground. Northern aspects looked softer but still…

Date

2018-05-02

Location

Eastern Alaska Range

Observer

Trevor Grams

Avalanche

N

General Observations

Excellent conditions on Rainbow Ridge. Fresh snow has been blown around into unconsolidated drifts that range from 3 in. to 3 ft. deep. In general, the new snow seems to have bonded very well to the old crust in this area. Windslabs are definitely a concern and are highly variable in terms of their density,…

General Observations

General Observations

Excellent conditions on Rainbow Ridge. Fresh snow has been blown around into unconsolidated drifts that range from 3 in. to 3 ft. deep. In general, the new snow seems to have bonded very well to the old crust in this area. Windslabs are definitely a concern and are highly variable in terms of their density,…